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What We Do

Technical Assistance & Consultation

Transforming Systems for Safer, Athlete-Centered Sport

The Assist provides expert, survivor-led, and trauma-informed guidance to organizations and institutions working to support athlete survivors and prevent abuse in sport.

We provide:

  • An assessment of your existing culture and systems
  • Tools and strategies tailored to your organization’s athlete safeguarding needs
  • Ongoing guidance to help you apply insights effectively and sustainably for long-term change

The USOPC Office of Athlete Safety collaborated with TAOS to provide numerous trauma-informed presentations for our staff. These presentations are empowering and equip participants with practical tools to support athletes beyond the field of play. Julie Ann and Kacey establish a safe and supportive environment that emphasizes how trauma-informed approaches can create safer and more positive sport experiences. Colleagues left feeling more confident and better prepared.

–U.S. Olympic & Paralympic Committee Office of Athlete Safety

Our Programs

The Assist also provides technical assistance for service providers.

We help increase the capacity of service providers (those who directly support survivors of abuse from the local to global level) to serve the unique needs of athletes who have been abused through their participation in sport.

We help providers and advocates enhance existing services to attend to the needs of athletes who have experienced abuse in sports. We also assist in understanding broader sports structures, such as sexual abuse reporting processes of sports governing bodies at all levels of sport.

Why Sports Require Specialized Trauma-Informed Approaches

Power Dynamics

Coach-athlete relationships influence career opportunities, team selection, scholarships, and performance evaluation.

Physical Vulnerability

Sports involve intimate physical contact, body scrutiny, and care that create additional risk factors for abuse.

Isolation Factors

Training schedules, travel, and team dynamics isolate athletes from support systems and reporting channels.

Performance Pressure

Fear of losing scholarships, positions, or career opportunities creates barriers to disclosure and enables continued abuse.

Cultural Normalization

The “tough it out” mentality and normalization of inappropriate, aggressive, and abusive behavior mask abuse and discourage reporting.

Re-Traumatizing Systems

Current investigation processes often re-traumatize survivors and fail to connect survivors to meaningful support and resources.

Guided Support, No Matter Where You Start.

Discovery & Assessment

We analyze your organization’s people and systems to understand the current culture, identify gaps, and gather athlete voices through trauma-informed data collection via surveys, one-on-one interviews, and/or listening sessions.

Core Activities:

  • Program kick-off
  • Anonymous surveys, one-on-one interviews, and listening sessions with athletes
  • Virtual drop-in sessions provided for athletes and others within the ecosystem
  • Comprehensive policy and procedure review
  • Environmental scan & systems analysis

Discovery & Assessment lays the foundation for preventing athlete abuse and responding appropriately to disclosures by revealing what’s working—and what’s not. Grounded in trauma-informed methods, it centers athlete voices while uncovering systemic gaps and cultural patterns that may compromise athlete safety. These insights shape a practical, strategic approach to education and prevention of the abuse of athletes.

Training & Support Development

We develop trauma-informed tools for use across your organization, tailored to Discovery & Assessment findings, and provide custom training for all team members.

Core Activities:

  • Custom program game plan development
  • Trauma-informed basics training for staff
  • Virtual media training for athlete survivors and media
  • Crisis response protocol development
  • Ongoing athlete support access

With tailored training and tools rooted in trauma-informed principles, organizations strengthen their ability to prevent abuse of athletes and respond to it effectively. From crisis response protocols to survivor-centered media practices to organizational policy changes, this work builds lasting capacity across every level of the system.

Implementation & Culture Change

Put recommendations into action with ongoing support to ensure lasting cultural transformation and an athlete-centered environment.

Core Activities:

  • On-site listening sessions & implementation support
  • Consultation on trauma-informed policy implementation
  • Crisis support system creation
  • Data-to-action evaluation & feedback loops

By turning insights into concrete action, organizations embed athlete abuse prevention into the fabric of their culture. Through sustained support, policy integration, and education, the result is not just safer environments, but stronger, more accountable systems built to protect and empower athletes.

Training

Contact Us

Want to learn more or connect with us? We’d love to hear from you.

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Stand with us! Your involvement impacts systems change, raises public awareness, and protects athletes.

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